Telling Tales
by Kylara Kitsune
Summary: Everybody has a story to tell. What you're about to read is mine. Crazy as it may seem, every word is true.


**AN: I'm aware I've probably mangled the Kingdom Hearts storyline. I've only played KH2 once, so I don't remember it all. The part where Kairi pushes the raft out to sea is from my story "Drifting Away". Prompt number 61 - "Fairy Tale". As ever, not my characters.**

**Normal text is the story Kairi's telling. Italics is what's happening around her as she writes it.**

_There's nothing worse than being an author when you don't have any ideas. It can't be called writer's block, exactly – I simply don't know what to write about. My muse has deserted me. My name is Kairi, and I write fantasy novels for a living. Well, I do when I have the inspiration to write. I've been stomping around the house in a foul mood for the last two days because my brain seems to have taken an unauthorised vacation._

_"Kairi, babe," my boyfriend begins. I turn to glare at him, but it doesn't work. Apart from the day he kidnapped me, I haven't been able to stay angry at him for longer than five minutes at a time._

_"Yes, Axel?"_

_"You haven't exactly had an uneventful life yourself. Pick up that pen and start writing about it."_

_I stop my pacing back and forth, and think for a few moments. He's absolutely right. The story I could tell rivals any fantasy novel you care to name, and the best part? It's all completely true. Returning to my desk, I find a pen and a fresh pad of paper, and begin._

…………………

I was fourteen years old when I learned that destiny was more than just a fairy story. That morning, I'd been building a raft with my friends, Sora and Riku. We wanted to go somewhere, find a place beyond the islands where we'd grown up – Destiny Islands, ironically enough. We'd built the raft, fetched the supplies we thought we needed, and were joking about sharing a paopu fruit. If you haven't heard the legend before, then it's said that sharing a paopu fruit joins your souls forever – your destinies become entwined. Of course, we were kids, and we didn't believe it. Anyway, we never did get around to sharing one, which was probably for the best.

The next thing I remember was the entire island being swamped by darkness – not like the sun setting, much more sudden than that. Besides, it was the middle of the day. Glowing yellow eyes appeared around our feet, thousands of the things, and we began to run. We'd lost all sense of direction in the dark, and must have tripped over countless times. Sora attempted to fight off some of the creatures with a wooden play sword – the only weapon we had – but it was useless.

What happened next sounds like it belongs in a fairy tale, but I saw it with my own eyes. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. The wooden sword in Sora's hand started glowing, and changed into something resembling a key, but much larger. Bewildered, he tried to fight off the monsters with it, and the strange key must have had special powers of some sort, because it was working. We made it as far as the secret place, where we collapsed, in shock and strangely exhausted. Sora's new weapon seemed to react to something, and part of the wall turned into a doorway.

"This world has been connected."

I don't remember everything that eerie voice said, but I do know that Sora had to leave. I gave him my lucky charm, and made him promise to return it.

When he disappeared through that doorway, and Riku and I were unable to follow, I had absolutely no idea that the two of us would be so involved in what was to come next.

…………………

_I'd become so involved in telling the story that I almost leaped out of my chair when Axel placed a hand on my shoulder._

_"Calm down, princess, I only wanted to see how far along it was."_

_There's a reason he calls me princess. I'll get to that part soon. He, to his great disappointment, doesn't enter the story until much later, but there's nothing I can do about that. The picture I'll be painting of him doesn't portray him in a very flattering light, at least at the beginning. That was then, though, and he's a totally different person now._

…………………

I'm somewhat embarrassed to say I only know the next part by hearsay. It turned out that I was kidnapped, and spent much of the next couple of months in an unnatural, magical sleep, while Sora was gallivanting off around the worlds. Hold on, I'm getting ahead of myself here.

When Sora stepped through the doorway in the secret place, he found himself in a world called Traverse Town. This turned out to e the place where everyone ends up if their world has been swallowed by darkness, like our island. In the town, he met Donald and Goofy, a walking, talking duck and dog who were from Disney Castle. King Mickey (a mouse, I believe, though we've never met) had sent them to find the "key". Sora's weapon was the key they were searching for, and it is, I later discovered, called a keyblade. Very fitting. The creatures that had attacked us were a form of monster called the Heartless.

Sora travelled to different worlds with Donald and Goofy, ridding them of Heartless and closing the pathways between the worlds. I didn't see him again until he reached Hollow Bastion, where I and six other girls were being held captive. Apparently, we all had pure hearts, which were essential to open "Kingdom Hearts" and flood the world with darkness. Collectively, we were the "Princesses of Heart". That's why Axel calls me princess – for a while, I actually was one.

Just after I regained consciousness, Sora was turned into a Heartless himself. I recognised him, and that meant he could regain his normal form. It seemed as though the enemy had been defeated, but while I was returned to the beach on Destiny Islands, where the adventure had begun, Sora wasn't. Riku was nowhere to be found – perhaps that's why Sora couldn't return. His task wasn't yet over.

…………………

_"You can't sit there writing all day, Kairi. You need to eat something."_

_I look up, and realise how much I've already written. It usually takes much longer than that. No wonder my hand is cramping up. I take the sandwich he offers me, while he picks up the pages I've completed. While I eat, he reads it._

_"There's a lot more here than what you told me."_

_"It would have taken hours to tell you everything."_

_"True."_

…………………

I clung to Sora's hand as he was dragged away by some unseen force. It was no use, we just couldn't hold on. When we were wrenched apart, he threw my lucky charm back to me. I'd almost forgotten he had it, to be honest. Once again, I was on the islands, but this time, completely alone. Over time, I became used to it, though I spent far too much time staring at the raft, still floating where we'd left it. One day, I'd had enough of seeing it, so I untied it and pushed it out to sea. Looking back, I think that was the day it started again.

I found myself unable to remember Sora's name, or what he looked like. I just knew that there had been a boy that Riku and I used to play with on the beach. It was just as strange that nobody else remembered him at all, not even vaguely. Then, I started hearing his voice. He gave me a clue to his name – "starts with an S". I wrote him a letter, put it in a bottle and let it drift out to sea. Selphie was with me that day, and she didn't understand at all.

"Starts with an S. Right, Sora?"

My memories gradually returned, and that's when Pluto showed up. Pluto was King Mickey's dog. I didn't know how he'd ended up on Destiny Islands, but that wasn't really important. I looked after him, hoping his appearance meant that someone would be arriving to explain things to me. Someone arrived, all right, but nobody I recognised. A creepy looking person wearing a long, black coat, with spiky hair that was blood red in colour, and eyes the most gorgeous shade of emerald green I've ever seen. Of course, he wasn't here to explain, or to help me get my friends back. Nothing's ever that simple, is it? He was here to (surprise, surprise) kidnap me. Being the designated damsel in distress was starting to get tiring, so there was no way I was going to just let him get on with it. I argued and fought him, and I think we both called each other some very rude names. It was no use, though. I ended up being dragged through a dark portal into a place called Castle Oblivion.

As you might have expected, I was held captive until Sora showed up. This time, he had Riku with him, and we escaped. We had to fight our way out, and to begin with I felt very useless, as I didn't have a weapon. When the shimmering keyblade appeared in front of me, I did the only thing I could have done. I took it. This time, all three of us landed back on the beach. Only then did I hear the entire story, which was partially told by Roxas and Naminé. Naminé was a girl I'd met in Castle Oblivion – a witch who could alter memories. She apologised for having to change mine and Sora's.

Roxas and Naminé are Nobodies – the part left over when a whole body is turned into a Heartless. They're missing one essential part, and that is a heart. They were created when Sora was turned into a Heartless. Roxas is Sora's Nobody, while Naminé is, apparently, mine. I don't fully understand it, but it seems that my heart was inside Sora when he became a Heartless, so I have a Nobody too.

What I should also tell you is how Sora managed to get inside Castle Oblivion in the first place. Remember my redheaded kidnapper? He had a change of heart (ok, he's a Nobody – he doesn't have one. Allow me the turn of phrase.) and opened a portal for Sora with the last of his strength, allowing Sora to reach the castle.

…………………

_"Considering you said it wouldn't be a very flattering description of me, I don't think that's too bad."_

_"Damn it, Axel, stop reading over my shoulder."_

_"Sorry, Kairi, it's a bad habit."_

_Yes, Axel was the creepy guy who kidnapped me. We all thought he was dying when he opened that portal for Sora._

_"I was. I don't know how I'm still here."_

_"Shut up for a few minutes, will you? I'm trying to tell the story."_

…………………

Riku is yet to tell us exactly what happened to him, but he was taken over by the darkness in some way. I didn't press him for details, because it was obvious that he didn't want to talk about it.

It wasn't until later, much later, that anything else out of the ordinary happened. Roxas and Naminé fitted into our little group as though they'd always been there (which, technically, they had). I think it was a year later – the five of us had gone to the beach after school as usual, and we found a figure lying on the sand. It wore a tattered version of the black coat of Organisation XIII, which had everyone reaching for their keyblades. Naminé moved back, out of the way – she was the only one of us who couldn't command a keyblade. Roxas, for some reason, had two. The person, who looked as though he'd been washed up on the beach by the waves, was certainly in no condition to fight. He could barely even sit up.

"That you, Rox?"

Roxas peered at him, from a safe distance. When the hood was pushed back, it became obvious.

"Axel?!" This from all of us. We'd thought he was dead.

We half-carried, half-dragged him back to the village where we lived. There was nowhere else to take him. Slowly, he recovered from a collection of wounds, and began joining us everywhere we went.

Axel wasn't the only member of Organisation XIII to appear on the island. Demyx and Zexion did too, not long after, and in much the same way. We're hoping that's it, but I really don't think anyone else will arrive now. It's been far too long.

…………………

_"It's because the three of us didn't really want to fight you guys, so we deserved another chance."_

_"Keep saying it, Axel, and maybe one day we'll believe it."_

…………………

Sora and Riku got married soon after we finished school. No-one was surprised when they told us. We'd all been expecting it. It was at their wedding that Axel and I got together. He'd asked me to dance, and then a somewhat tipsy Sora said we looked good together. That's how it started, and I've never once looked back or regretted it.

Nothing else out of the ordinary has happened, but we're all prepared, just in case. You never know what destiny might throw at you next.

**AN: The longest thing I've written for quite some time. Nice to prove I can still do it. But what do you think? You'll have to click the review button to tell me.**


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